Wild Swarm slot review

Wild Swarm takes a look at the life of a beehive with their drones working hard to create honey and facing all the challenges that might arise from that. This slot was developed by Push Gaming and features a bonus game, sticky wilds and free spins!

Developed and released in 2018, Wild Swarm still gives players a very visually appealing experience with great graphics and a number of animations. The graphics aren’t as detailed as we might expect from larger studios but it all looks crisp and flashy, with enough animations to make it look interesting. When we start we can see a lively forest in the background with a 5-reel, 4-row playing field in the foreground.

There are 20 paylines to play with and the game includes some original symbols to fit the theme. You’ll find a number of different bees here, including what appears to be a drone and a queen. The Queen doesn’t have an animation when part of a win which I found rather odd, but other symbols do move around.

The game has an upbeat, rather generic-sounding song playing in the background. I wasn’t quite sure what the angle was here. It doesn’t really remind me of nature or the forest, and it feels like it’s constantly ramping up to a bigger song but it never does. The sound effects are fine but similarly generic with excited jingles and bells that don’t work very hard to fit the theme.

Symbols

Wild Swarm has a big number of symbols. Coupled with the limited number of features the game settles on High Volatility. Players can pick a bet between $0.20 and $100 per spin to mitigate the risk somewhat, although in my experience my funds stayed pretty steady as I played so it might be worth upping your bets once you got a feel for the game.

The symbols in the game include:

• Scatter: Get 3 or more Scatters to activate the Free Spins mode.
• Wild: Wilds substitute all regular symbols in the game.
• Chest: The player gets to pick an instant coin win when the Chest Symbol appears on the screen.
• Coin: Max. 30x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Queen Bee: Max. 15x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Honey: Max. 10x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• White Flower: Max. 7x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Pink Flower: Max. 7x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Ace: Max. 3x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• King: Max. 2.5x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Queen: Max. 2.5x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Jack: Max. 2x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.

There are a number of other symbols in the game too, notably the Collectable Bees who are added to a tracker and leave behind a Wild Honey symbol and which can add the Swarm Mode Feature. Since those don’t appear during normal gameplay and have no direct coin value I’ll just name them in connection with their feature.

Features

Wild Swarm has a decent number of different features that give the players some interesting changes in the gameplay:

• Wilds: Wilds will substitute all other regular symbols in the game.
• Sticky Wilds: During the Free Spins and Swarm mode, Wilds become Sticky Wilds and stay in place for the duration of the feature.
• Free Spins: Get 3 Scatter symbols to activate the Free Spins mode.
• Coin Win: With 3 or more Chests on the screen the Coin Win feature is activated. Players can pick 1 of 5 options, which awards an instant coin win. It can also trigger the Free Spins mode.
• Swarm Mode: Whenever a Wild appears on screen it is added to the tracker. Once the tracker is filled it can activate the Swarm Mode. During this mode, all Wilds are Sticky.

Reading the features it looks like the Free Spins mode and Swarm Mode are separate things but in my experience, they are actually the same. Swarm Mode activates Sticky Wilds just like the Free Spins mode, and both give the player free spins. I don’t really know what the difference is supposed to be except perhaps the way it is activated.

The high volatility comes from the features not activating very often and when they do, they’re often not causing any big wins. That doesn’t mean that the game never rewards any wins, it’s more that the volatility doesn’t really reflect the size of the wins. I found the game to be pretty evened out and my funds always stayed steady.

All in all, you’ll get something out of the features without them really feeling like a major part of the game. The Sticky Wilds were arguably the best part of the slot but those are only activated during the Free Spins mode. The game is left to feel rather simple and enjoyable, without really challenging the player in any way.

In Conclusion

If you’re looking for a basic slot with features that feel slightly disconnected from the game, Wild Swarm will get you there. The game looks good and the features all work as they’re supposed to but it fails to feel like a cohesive whole. Instead, you’re left with separate parts all doing their own thing independently from each other.

Players that want something fun but simple will likely have a good time with this game. It won’t take you long to get a grasp of the different features. People that enjoy a bit more complexity or alternatively want something that resembles the classic slot machine will probably prefer to keep looking.

The max. win of 3,100x your bet feels appropriate given the level of complexity. It won’t give you anything allowing you to retire but it’s a nice incentive to keep playing if you are enjoying your time with Wild Swarm.